Policemen guard the prime minister's office in Manama, Bahrain: Troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are helping the Bahrain kingdom fight protesters. Corbis

March 15, 2011

ADVERTISEMENT

Sign Up for

Our free email newsletters

10 things you need to know today

Today's best articles

Today's top cartoons

The good news newsletter

The week's best photojournalism

Daily business briefing

Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 soldiers into neighboring Bahrain on Monday to help quell increasingly violent anti-government protests. While Bahrain's King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifah, a Sunni Muslim, has offered to start a dialogue with the mostly Shiite protesters, opposition leaders have refused, demanding that the government step down, and calling the arrival of foreign troops an invasion. Saudi Arabia has problems with its own Shiite minority, and fears the unrest in Bahrain could spill over into its own oil-rich kingdom. Will the Saudis be able to quash the unrest in Bahrain? (Watch an Al Jazeera report about the Saudi intervention)

The Saudis can try, but it won't work: "The Saudi troops may succeed in quashing the demonstrations," says Aryn Baker at TIME, but they'll only strengthen the spirit driving the uprising. The protesters' demands are reasonable: Essentially, a constitutional monarchy — not the implementation of Shariah law or the expulsion of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is stationed there. So the Saudi soldiers, fighting to protect "autocratic and dictatorial regimes," will ultimately wind up "on the wrong side of history.""Why a Saudi intervention into Bahrain won't end the protests"

The Saudis claim they're not there to fight: According to Saudi Arabia, the troops have merely entered Bahrain in "a peaceful manner" to protect vital infrastructure, says Phillip Suderman at the Washington Examiner. If that's so, the arrival of soldiers from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states could be a sign that Middle Eastern nations are willing to take responsibility for stability in their own backyards. That would be an "indication that the U.S. is not needed to interfere in the nations around the region, such as Libya.""Saudi Arabia sends troops into Bahrain, so why not Libya?"